The clockwork creature whirs to life at the whim of its master. Made of various metals and granted the soul of a monster, this intelligent construct is designed to resemble a living creature in both form and function. A clockwork creature serves as an intelligent aide, guardian, or even friend to its creator, or to anyone its creator designates.
A clockwork creature’s body is a complicated construction of gears, wires, chains, and struts, often covered with riveted metal plating to give it the form of the living creature it mimics. Magic and engineering give a clockwork creature access to the powers of the creature it resembles, thus enabling its creator to effectively gain the aid of any being desired.
Sample Creatures: Clockwork Choker
Creating a Clockwork Creature
“Clockwork creature” is a created template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature that is not an ooze (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A clockwork creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to construct with the appropriate augmented subtype. Do not recalculate base attack bonuses or saves. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d10s. Th e creature gains bonus hit points as a construct of its size category. Since Clockwork it has no Constitution score, it does not gain bonus hit
points based on high Constitution.
Armor Class: Th e clockwork creature’s natural armor bonus
improves by +5 over that of the base creature.
Special Qualities: Th e clockwork creature retains all the special
qualities of the base creature and gains those described
here.
Created Mind (Ex): Clockwork creatures know nothing
when fi rst created, but many are intelligent. On its fi rst
day, a clockwork creature functions like any mindless
construct, but thereafter its native intelligence comes to
the fore, allowing it to reason and improvise. Creators
can thus give their clockwork constructs somewhat vague
commands and allow them to interpret and act on them,
secure in the knowledge that their servants will not act in a
way contrary to their desires.
Despite a reasoning intelligence, the clockwork creature
remains wholly under the control of its creator and
does nothing against that individual’s will. Because of a
special bond formed during its fi rst day, the clockwork
creature can instinctively detect the location of its creator,
regardless of magical and natural barriers, so long as the
latter is within 100 feet. Th is ability prevents anyone from
successfully impersonating the creator within that range. If
someone resembling its creator issues an order from more
than 100 feet away, the clockwork creature
might or might not obey, depending on
how suspicious it is of the command.
Th e creator can designate another creature
or group of creatures for the clockwork
creature to obey, but the creator’s commands
always take precedence over those of other
designated commanders. If the clockwork creature has
an Intelligence score of 3 or higher, it continuously
watches designated commanders for signs that they are
commanding it against its creator’s intent. Should such a
situation occur, the clockwork creature acts loyally instead.
A clockwork creature with an Intelligence of 12 or higher
automatically knows when its creator is being forced to act
against his own wishes through mental control or other
coercion, physical or mental. In such a case, the clockwork
creature improvises a way to attain its creator’s true goals
without allowing harm to come to him. In the absence
of any commands from its creator, a clockwork creature
follows the last commands it received. If it knows its
creator is dead, it attempts to achieve his goals to the best
of its ability.
Hardness (Ex): A clockwork creature has a hardness of 10.
Th is quality functions like object hardness, even though a
clockwork creature is not an object.
Metal Body (Ex): Beneath its skin, a clockwork creature is
largely composed of metal. It counts as a ferrous creature
for the purpose of rusting grasp and other spells that have
special eff ects on metal.
Resistances (Ex): A clockwork creature has resistance 10 to
acid, cold, and fi re.
Vulnerability to Electricity (Ex): Because the delicate
interior mechanisms of a clockwork creature are
particularly vulnerable to electricity damage, it takes
double damage from electricity on a failed save and half
damage on a successful save. If the base creature is immune
to electricity, it takes no damage from electricity attacks
but is dazed for 1 round on a failed save.
Windup Key (Ex): A clockwork creature must be wound up
each day by placing a small key into a special orifi ce and
turning it—an action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
For each full round that the key is turned, the clockwork
creature can be active for 4 hours (maximum 24 hours). In
most cases, the creator either retains his construct’s key or
gives it to the clockwork creature so that it can keep itself
running.
When the clockwork creature runs down, it becomes
immobile, helpless, and unconscious, and it remains so
until wound up again. Anyone can wind up a clockwork
creature without the key by making a successful Open
Locks check as a full-round action (DC based on the
quality of lock the creator built into the clockwork
creature). Th is technique allows the clockwork creature
4 hours of activity (maximum 24 hours) for each such
successful check.
Abilities: Change from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex
+4, Int –4 (minimum 0), Wis –4 (minimum 1), Cha –4
(minimum 1). As a construct, a clockwork creature does
not have a Constitution score.
Skills: A clockwork creature gains skill points for its racial Hit
Dice as a construct (2 + Int modifi er) x (HD + 3), or 0 if
its Intelligence score is 0. Recalculate its available
skill points, then purchase its skills afresh, treating
the base creature’s skills and any skills in which the
creator has 5 or more ranks as class skills and all
others as cross-class skills. Th e clockwork creature
retains any skill points gained from class levels and
any racial bonuses the base creature has.
Due to its innate understanding of its own being, a
clockwork creature gains a +5 racial bonus on Craft
(armorsmithing), Craft (weaponsmithing), and Disable
Device checks. It can use these skills as though trained,
even if it has no ranks in them. However, the clockwork
creature takes a –2 penalty on Move Silently checks
because its internal mechanisms constantly click and whir
while it functions.
Languages: A clockwork creature that is intelligent enough to
speak languages speaks those that its creator teaches it.
Orders from its creator are heeded regardless of language,
but a clockwork creature must understand the language of
another commander to follow her orders. If it does not, it
simply obeys the last orders of its creator.
Environment: Same as creator.
Organization: Solitary, pair, or gang (3–4).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +2.
Alignment: Always neutral.
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +4.
Creating a Clockwork Creature
Clockwork creatures are created like golems. Because it is composed
of various metals and composite materials, a clockwork creature
weighs nearly twice what the base creature does.
Creating a clockwork creature costs 800 times its CR in gold pieces.
Assembling the body requires a successful Craft (armorsmithing) and Craft (weaponsmithing) check (DC 20 for both), the Craft
Construct feat, and the ability to cast arcane or divine spells.
Th e level of the clockwork creature’s creator must equal or exceed
the CR of the clockwork creature +4. Completing the ritual drains
a number of XP equal to the clockwork creature’s creation cost
divided by 25, and it requires the spells geas/quest, limited wish,
polymorph any object, and resist elements.
Clockwork Characters
A clockwork character favors whichever class the base creature does.
Such a character can be introduced into a campaign in a number of
ways. Th e lifespark template (see page 159) allows a clockwork creature
to become part of any adventuring party. Also, a character might create
a clockwork creature as a cohort under another player’s control.
